Power retailer Manila Electric Co. will secure about 4,420 megawatts of supply for its power requirements from 2020 to 2027 to meet the projected 3-percent annual growth in demand in the franchise area.
“The first wave of supply procurement will be for 70-MW basel load supply, 200 MW RE base load supply and 1,800 MW base load supply,” Meralco said in its latest power supply procurement plan submitted to the Department of Energy.
The company needs 70 MW of base load supply starting September and 200 MW base load supply from renewable energy by 2022.
The company will also need 1,800 MW of base load power supply starting December 2024.
Meralco will need to secure 1,850 MW by 2025, of which 1,000 MW is base load, 600 MW mid-merit and 250 MW in renewable mid-merit supply.
The company will also need 500 MW from mid-merit renewable energy supply by 2027.
Meralco’s system peak demand in 2019 reached 7,740 MW, up 4.61 percent from 7,399 MW in 2018. Meralco in March posted a system demand of 7,614 MW before dropping to 5,506 MW in April amid the quarantine imposed by the government. Demand is seen to reach 6,754 MW in September.
Meralco expects system demand to peak to 7,800.75 MW in May next year. Peak demand will steadily rise to 8,118 MW by May 2022.
“The peak demand was forecasted using the load factor approach and was projected to occur on the month of May due to seasonal increase in electricity consumption during summer months,” Meralco said.
“In general, peak demand is expected to grow at a rate of 3.3 percent annually over the period of 2020-2029,” the company said.
Peak demand is seen to continue to go up to 8,420 MW in May 2023, 8,742 MW in May 2024, 9,109 MW in May 2025, 9,476 MW in May 2026 and 9,864 MW in May 2027.
Peak demand in Meralco’s franchise area is expected to breach 10,000 MW by May 2028 to 10,244 MW and increase to 10,708 MW by May 2029.
Meralco said it is preparing the invitation to bid for its competitive selection process for the supply of 1,800 MW of power generation capacity.
“Meralco TPBAC [third party bids and award committee] is scheduled to meet very soon, during which we will formally ask for approval to publish invitation to bid for the 1,800 MW CSP,” Meralco head of utility economics Lawrence Fernandez said.